Liquid crystal displays have been conventionally used as display devices in compact, thin apparatus such as laptop computers, mobile phones, and portable televisions. Other growing areas of applications of the liquid crystal display include onboard meters for vehicles that display vehicle and traffic information. These liquid crystal displays include an illumination device for casting light on a liquid crystal panel. Such an illumination device includes a light source and a light guide plate that converts a flux of light coming from the light source to an area flux of light that is the most suitable to the lighting-up of a liquid crystal panel. Patent Literature 1 detailed below discloses a known, exemplary illumination device of this type. The illumination device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes a plurality of light sources and a light guide member. The light emitted by the light source enters the light guide member through a light-incident portion thereof and exits the light guide member through the light-exiting portion thereof to cast light on a liquid crystal panel which is a lit-up member. The light guide member is substantially circular. The light sources are arranged along the circumference of the light guide member so that all the directions of the light emitted by the light sources can intersect.